雅思閱讀：《風帆與暗影》古代海上掠奪者的史詩旅程

熱呼呼的劍橋19雅思閱讀來囉！我非常喜歡雅思的閱讀，今天來聊聊雅思閱讀的題材，雅思的閱讀內容全部都是取材自報紙、學術期刊、科普雜誌（如 National Geographic、The Economist），主題包含了歷史、科學、環境、文化、人文地理等，內容貼近日常與學術應用。
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文法難度來說，雅思閱讀大多是英式書面用語，常用長句、被動語態、非限定子句，詞彙上涵蓋學術、文化、日常用語，部分為英式拼法（colour, organise）。

我們來看看這次的雅思難句有哪些:

1. In the first and second millennia BCE, pirates prowled the Mediterranean, attacking ships and evading pursuers.
公元前一、二千年，海盜在地中海徘徊，襲擊船隻並躲避追捕。

2. The earliest documented piracy in the Mediterranean dates to ancient Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, when it posed a substantial threat to coastal civilisation.
地中海最早的海盜記錄可追溯至古埃及法老阿蒙霍特普三世時期，當時它對沿海文明構成了重大威脅。

3. These threats were recorded mainly via memoranda, including diplomatic correspondence between the pharaoh and his allies, which reveal piracy as a pressing concern of state security.
這些威脅主要透過備忘錄記載，包括法老與盟友之間的外交往來信件，顯示海盜問題已成為國家安全的緊迫議題。

4. While Egypt’s power was largely land-based, the ancient Greeks relied on the Mediterranean as the conduit of their influence, intertwining commerce with maritime raids.
儘管埃及的力量主要依賴陸地，古希臘則依賴地中海作為其影響力的通道，將商業與海上襲擊交織在一起。
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5. Greek city-states, such as Rhodes, often engaged in both suppressing and profiting from piracy, reflecting the ambiguous moral stance towards seaborne predation.
羅德島等希臘城邦常同時參與打擊與從海盜活動中牟利，反映了當時對海上掠奪的道德立場曖昧不明。

6. By the late Roman Republic, piracy had reached such proportions that it imperilled Rome’s grain imports from overseas provinces.
到羅馬共和國晚期，海盜問題嚴重到威脅羅馬從海外行省進口糧食的安全。

7. Pompey was granted extraordinary command to eradicate piracy within three months, employing a strategy that combined overwhelming force with offers of clemency.
龐培被授予非常指揮權，在三個月內剷除海盜，並採用結合壓倒性武力與寬恕承諾的策略。

8. The suppression of piracy not only secured Rome’s maritime trade routes but also reinforced its dominance over the Mediterranean economy.
剷除海盜不僅確保了羅馬的海上貿易航道，還加強了其在地中海經濟中的主導地位。